


Donna, Stay

by sam_writes_fics



Series: Things You Never Forget [1]
Category: The West Wing
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gunshot Wounds, Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:22:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23304586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sam_writes_fics/pseuds/sam_writes_fics
Summary: Donna rushes to the hospital in fear that the President has been shot. What she finds once she gets there is her worst fear come true.
Relationships: Josh Lyman & Donna Moss, Josh Lyman/Donna Moss
Series: Things You Never Forget [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1675951
Comments: 1
Kudos: 35





	Donna, Stay

**Author's Note:**

> Not my characters, not my plot. Hopefully the first in a few chapters on this trauma.

It was the scariest night of her life.

She was sitting at home flipping through a magazine with the TV on. She had been watching the President’s speech, but now the news was muted in the background. Donna got through more than half of the magazine before she looked up at her small TV again. 

The words “BREAKING NEWS” flashed across the screen. She unmuted the TV and walked over to her kitchen table that was barely big enough for two and started to pack her work bag. Donna figured that if this story was big enough to get to the news before she received her usual panicked call from Josh telling her to get to the office now, that meant they were in for a serious all-nighter.

Just as she was debating which 24-hour Starbucks she was going to stop at on her way in, she finally heard what the news reporter was actually saying.

“Gun shots fired at Rosslyn, the President and his staff seem to be the intended targets. No comment yet from anyone about how many casualties and/or injuries. The shooters were—”

Donna was out the door faster than her bag hit the floor.

*

When she got to the hospital, it was a total nightmare. She had her White House badge, but with the amplified security following the night’s events, she wasn’t allowed in. She thought the President must be down if there were this many agents. She thought the worst.

Well, the worst she could think of at the time anyways.

She walked almost the entire perimeter of the hospital before finding an agent she knew. He helped her get through the barrier and into the building.

She asked him if Josh had arrived yet. He said he hadn’t seen him.

Donna was already making a mental note of all the things Josh would need from her. Schedules, phone numbers, files, notebooks and pretty much everything else that was at the office. She thought she should have stopped at the office before coming here. Stupid.

She put the thought in the back of her mind, and told herself not to worry about it until she figured out what was going on with the President. Besides, the list of things that Josh would need really did depend on how the President was doing.

Donna finally found the waiting room filled with the people she knew. There were a lot of waiting rooms filled with lots of people from the White House, but they were all people she barely knew from work. When she saw Toby pacing in what seemed the be the hundredth waiting room she walked by, she finally found what she was looking for.

She opened the door and there were CJ, Sam and Toby. Donna looked around and didn’t see Josh, but she figured that if these three were here then he wasn’t far off. 

As she closed the door behind her, she noticed they were all staring at her. Oh God, something really did happen to the President.

“I hope it’s okay that I’m here,” she started, her voice shaky. “I saw on TV that there were gun shots, and I just got here as fast as I could.”

They all kept their eyes locked on her as she closed the door behind her. 

“How’s the President?” 

“He’s going to be fine,” responded CJ.

“Oh, thank God. I didn’t know where else to go, I had trouble getting in here and then I thought maybe I would be more useful at the office, but then I thought Josh might need me here instead screening calls or—”

“Donna.”

Toby had cut her off. 

“Donna, Josh has been hit.”

She blinked. She didn’t know what else to say other than:

“Hit with what?”

CJ and Sam looked at Toby. Toby never broke eye contact with Donna.

“He was shot. In the chest.”

She couldn’t wrap her head around it. Josh had been shot? That’s not right. Why would someone shoot Josh? He’s kind and funny and sometimes annoying, but also charming when he wants to be and he would never hurt someone else so why would someone try—

“I don’t understand” She finally said out loud. She looked at CJ for an answer.

“He’s in surgery right now.”

“I don’t understand,” she repeated “is it… is it serious?”

“It’s critical,” replied Toby.

Donna felt her stomach start to do flips. Toby was trying to explain to her what the surgeons were doing, but she wasn’t listening. She covered her mouth with her hand to try to hold herself from crying (and throwing up). She slowly sat down in one of the waiting room chairs, and didn’t get up again for several hours.

The others took turns sitting with her as they were in and out of the room. CJ had to keep leaving to do press briefings, but she would bring Donna a coffee every time she came back. Donna politely took a few sips, but always ended up throwing most of it away. She couldn’t eat or drink anything.

Toby would sit next to her in silence. They never talked much anyways, so this was comforting for the both of them. He let Donna borrow his notepad once to write down a list of things she would have to get from Josh’s apartment if he—when he made it through surgery. The list wouldn’t stop swimming around in her mind until she wrote it down. She thanked Toby.

Sam was the one who brought the most solace to Donna. Besides her, Sam knew Josh the most out of everyone. He would sit right up against the arm rest dividing them and let Donna rest her head on his shoulder. She never fell asleep, but it was nice to close her eyes for a minute or two and know Sam would move if something happened. In return, she held Sam’s shaking hand and stroked the back of his hand with her thumb. Donna had never been super close with Sam (not the way she was with Josh) but they both understood they needed someone to lean on that knew what the other was going through.

Donna thought he was the closest one to understand, but he still didn’t. Not really.

See, Donna was Josh’s assistant, but she was also his friend. She was maybe his best friend (next to Sam). Josh didn’t get out of the office much, not even on weekends. And when Josh was in the office, Donna was there too. 

They ate lunch together almost every day, unless Josh had a lunch meeting with some other politician to try and broker a deal. They would banter in the bullpen, and he would tease her about being from Wisconsin while she teased him about his lack of success with women. 

Somewhere between the end of the campaign and Inauguration Day, there had been a shift in her relationship with Josh. Not a big one, but significant enough. Donna started to understand Josh in a way she hadn’t before. Maybe it was because she was finally starting to be a great assistant. Maybe it was because his dad died, and she had been the one to break the news to him. Maybe it was because she caught him staring at her from his office doorway a few too many times, and she really didn’t mind it. 

Somewhere in there, they had gone from coworkers, to friends, and then to whatever they were now. They flirted occasionally and harmlessly, and there was even a time where they almost kissed.

They had gone out to a bar with Toby, Sam, and CJ and they were all sitting at a table together. Toby went to take a phone call, CJ went to the bathroom, and Sam went to get the next round. Josh was drunk, but that was no surprise. It takes two drinks in less than an hour to get him like that. Donna was pretty tipsy herself. They had been debating policy for whatever bill they were trying to get through the Senate, and it had gotten pretty heated. Suddenly Josh had stopped talking and just tilted his head and stared at her, smiling.

“What?” she asked, confused and still fired up. Donna was suddenly very aware that their legs were touching, and his face was very close to hers. She stared back.

God, he had the cutest dimples when he smiled. 

Josh looked into her eyes, and even looked down at her lips once or twice, briefly. Donna swears he was starting to lean in when Sam almost spilled all the beers when trying to put them on the table.

They went back to discussing policy, the three of them, and the night carried on. They next day at the office they both pretended like nothing happened. Donna wonders if he even remembers it.

Right now, Donna wasn’t thinking about that night (although she has pondered it a few too many times). She was thinking about how scared he must be. She wasn’t dumb, she knew he was under anesthesia and probably enough pain killers to knock out a small horse, but she wondered what he was dreaming about. Or having nightmares about. If he still had brain function after the blood loss. If he was still alive at all.

Donna cried silently in her waiting room chair only once. The tears fell onto her lap while everyone except Toby was out of the room. He was faced away from her, and she knew he wouldn’t say anything even if he had noticed (which he didn’t). It lasted fifteen seconds before she forced herself to stop. She didn’t want anyone getting the wrong idea. 

Most of the time she spent in the waiting room she would just stare out the window at all of the doctors and nurses walking by. Every time one of them entered the room, she jumped. Most of them were there to get Charlie or Zoey for the President, but a few times they gave updates on Josh. 

*

When the surgeon came and told them Josh was finally out of surgery, Donna asked when she could see him, and they said she could go now if she wanted.

When she reached his hospital room door, she saw that Leo and the President were in there with him. They were sitting on either side leaning over him and talking. All she wanted to do was march in there and tell them to leave and to let him rest. But she knew better than to tell the President and the Chief of Staff to get lost. So, she waited her turn. 

When they finally left, Leo actually gave her a hug. He said that’s what Josh would do if their roles were reversed and it was Margaret coming to see him at 6:45am without sleeping. Donna appreciated it. That’s exactly what Josh would do.

While waiting in the hallway she tried to brace herself. It didn’t work.

When she walked into the room, she froze. She stood there, coat in one hand and purse in the other, staring at him for what felt like hours, but was probably just a minute or two. She looked at the bandages wrapped around his chest and the various tubes coming out of them. The only thing she could move were her eyes, scanning his body like it was the last time she would see him.

She didn’t even notice when he opened his eyes and found her standing there.

“Donna?”

His voice was barely a whisper, but in the silence of the hospital room she heard it. It snapped her out of whatever trance she was in, and she put her things down on the table next to the door and sat down in the chair next to him.

“Josh… What do you need? Can I get you anything?”

“Donna…” He tried to lift his hand but failed. She held onto it with both hands. 

She saw the pain in his eyes.

“Donna… stay…”

“I’m right here,” she replied. She didn’t know if it was him or the drugs talking, but she didn’t care. She was staying right there for however long he needed her.

“I’ll be right here when you wake up,” she managed to get in before he passed out again. 

She leaned forward and kissed his forehead.

“I’m not going anywhere.”


End file.
